


In the water, with you

by bluefeatherofhappiness (orphan_account)



Category: DMMd, DRAMAtical Murder
Genre: Agender Character, Alternate Universe - Popstar, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Asexual Character, Dissociation, Eventual Smut, Evil Twins, Falling In Love, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Gray Ace Mizuki, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, M/M, Mildly Dubious Consent, MizuClear - Freeform, Non-Consensual Touching, Robot Feels, Robot/Human Relationships, Romance, Self-Harm, Smoking, The popstar AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-09-28
Updated: 2014-11-14
Packaged: 2018-02-19 03:04:31
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 17,292
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2372156
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/bluefeatherofhappiness
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After convincing Toue to turn a defective IdolMate into a solo artist, Mizuki becomes a song writer for Toue Entertainment. What starts out as gratitude and friendship eventually turns into something more, as Mizuki comes to realize that Clear is more than just a machine. But their involvement with each other is complicated by their professional relationship and the will of Clear's master. Currently on hiatus.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Overture

**Author's Note:**

> This first part takes place before the events in Golden Boy, although there is an obvious point where the two overlap. The ending tags are mostly warnings for further on in the story, but a big theme in this fic is going to be "robots as people VS. robots as objects", so there's a lot of actions/language towards Clear at first that's dehumanizing, such as referring to him as 'it' and so on.

Hair mussed, jacket unbuttoned, Mizuki stared numbly at the ceiling of his Platinum Jail apartment. Papers, knocked over in the altercation, were strewn about the floor and there was a lingering taste of saliva in his mouth. His hands were trembling, and he winced suddenly as the last of his cigarette burned his fingers and it fell to the floor. He hurriedly ground it out, not even caring if it left a burn on the wooden floor. What did he care? None of it mattered. Not anymore. A wave of nausea and despair rose in his stomach. He grit his teeth to stop what was coming- whether it was vomit or tears, he didn’t know, but he didn’t want to feel it, not now. Mizuki didn’t want to feel anything right now, because Clear would never feel anything again. And it was all his fault. The dam of emotions finally burst, and he curled into himself, sobbing.

A little over a year earlier, Mizuki was on top of the world. Finally, after all of his hard work, he’d made a name for himself as a composer. It started out small- he wrote a few songs for an independent film, which ended up doing really well, and after that things really took off. Before he knew it, he found himself rubbing shoulders with all sorts of famous people and being asked to work on all sorts of projects. He even wrote one of the best songs from the twilight years of the famous boy-band, M-3, and through that, he befriended Koujaku, Ren and Aoba. Then, after he agreed to help Koujaku with his solo album, people suddenly started calling him a producer, as well. That was how he found himself invited to Toue Incorporated’s Entertainment Expo.

He sat nervously in the stark white reception room, chewing on his thumbnail. He always had tics like that when he was uneasy- shaking a leg, tapping a foot, playing with his earrings- he’d always chalked it up to being a rhythm thing. A need to create order with sound. But today he wasn’t wearing his earrings or his normal outfit; instead, he wore a suit and tie (the only one he owned) and dress shoes. He had to look his best. Getting invited to a private meeting with Toue himself was a big deal. It was the entrepreneur’s tradition to invite a select few members of the music industry for exclusive access to some of the latest innovations in the field. And boy, was he nervous.

He wondered vaguely if the president of Black Skull Audio would be there. Undoubtedly, Ryuhou’s audio engineering would play some part in whatever was being presented, as the two companies shared an exclusive partnership. The sound of footsteps pulled him out of his thoughts. A young woman in a tight white dress bowed to him and told him to follow her to the presentation area. Guided by the fae-like woman, the two of them went through a maze of hallways and a menagerie of security checks before arriving in a large, minimalistic theater. The other guests were already seated and chattering excitedly about what Toue could have brought them this time, their outfits smattering color across the trademark “Toue black and white” arena. Mizuki took his seat, which was much closer to the front than he ever would have imagined.

Moments later, the overhead lights dimmed and the chatter fell silent. The man of the hour, in his iconic tartan suit jacket over a maroon waistcoat, emerged from off side. There was a roar of applause while Toue took his spot behind the black podium. He smiled politely for a for moments until he held up a gloved hand to silence the crowd.

“Welcome,” he began, “To the private showing of this year’s entertainment expo.” More applause. “As you all know, in less than a week there will be a public showcase for our newest products headed to market. But this,” he said, gesturing at the closed black curtain behind him, “Is something quite different. Think of this presentation as an investor’s meeting.” He smiled again as the crowd laughed politely. “What you are about to see will not be something as publicly available as our AllMates, but rest assured when I tell you that it will be much more revolutionary-and profitable-to all members of the entertainment industry.” He paused again, adjusting his sport coat. “The cost of supporting entertainers is a high one. We at Toue Entertainment know that. Not only do you finance their pageantry and the transportation of their equipment, but you also end up taking on the cost of training, paying, and feeding the backup singers and dancers. The profit margins are great thanks to the sales of songs and concert tickets, but with illegal downloading and ticket scalping, there are still a large percentage of profits that are lost.” He looked seriously at the crowd, looking each audience member in the eyes.

“But what if there was a way to recover some of those expenses? An ethical, economical way to support big-name idols while cutting back on tour expenses? With this new venture by Toue Entertainment, that dream may be a reality.” On cue, the black curtain rolled open, revealing a silhouetted figure seated on a stool. As the front lights went up, the crowd gasped. Seated on the stool, clothed in white, was a young man.

He appeared to be in his early 20s, with pale, delicate features- a soft pouting mouth, a gently curving nose, and expressive, pink eyes framed by thick white eyelashes. His hair, white and wavy, was styled in a choppy bob cut that framed his soft cheekbones and gave him a slightly effeminate look. Lastly- Mizuki noticed with surprise- on this seemingly flawless face, there were two small, dark moles on the right side of his chin. The crowd murmured in dissent. Why was there a boy here? What was the meaning of this? Toue merely smiled patiently and waited for the audience to calm down.

“This,” he announced, “Is Unit R-2E-054, or as he’s been codenamed, Clear. He is the first model of Toue Entertainment’s latest innovation, the IdolMates.” The crowd exploded with surprise and disbelief. This man was a robot? How were they supposed to believe that? And why had Toue waited until now to create robots in human form? Surely there wasn’t a market for those; otherwise they would’ve already been released. Toue held up a hand to silence the chatter. “The differences between an IdolMate and an AllMate are many, but perhaps the most significant is their incredible imitation of human vocalization, movement, and emotion. R-2E-054, please demonstrate.” He snapped a finger, and the robot- Clear- stood from its seat, and timidly approached the microphone. It shuffled its feet, bit its lip, and looked up from under its eyelashes shyly.

“Hello….um…I am unit R-2E-054.” The crowd applauded politely, and it turned pink, seemingly embarrassed by the amount of attention it was receiving. Toue smiled and gave a slight nod. The man- no, robot- swallowed nervously, and sang a short chromatic scale before breaking into a crystalline rendition of ‘Sakura, Sakura’. Its voice, almost undistinguishable from a normal human’s, even conveyed the same timbre and tone a flesh and blood singer’s would. But there was something different about it, Mizuki puzzled. Something almost… hypnotic. Regardless, Mizuki didn’t have much time to dwell on what it was before the song ended. There was a roar of applause. The robot seemed to relax a bit, a soft smile playing across their lips as it stared at its feet shyly.

                “As you can imagine,” Toue continued, “We’ve spared no expense to be certain that the functions of this and future IdolMates are of the highest quality, placing a particular emphasis on their realism. However,” he smiled again, “it would be a shame for you to only see the exterior of such a fine piece of machinery.” Next to him, the robot’s smile vanished, replaced by a look of pure terror as the color drained from their face.

“So I’m going to do something a bit unconventional, if you don’t mind. Unit Alpha, take a seat.” For a moment, the IdolMate only stared at him uncomprehendingly. It seemed…confused. A few people in the audience tittered. The old man’s eyes narrowed.

“I said,” he snapped, “Take a seat.” The robot flinched, and muttered an apology.

The white haired robot bowed and retook their seat, this time sitting facing away from the audience, and removed its shirt. Toue approached, and pushing on the back of the unit’s neck, pulled up the roots of his hair to reveal, as the LCD screen mounted on the wall showed, a pinhole right where the spine connected to the skull.

“Obviously, we’ve gone to great lengths to ensure that the fact that IdolMates are machines is nearly undetectable. The texture of the skin, the functions of the body, all are almost identical to a normal human being’s.” He reached inside his coat pocket and removed a small tool that resembled a lobotomy ice pick- _an orbitoclast,_ Mizuki thought, although he had no idea how he knew that- and a small hammer. He delicately pressed the tip of the pick into the pinhole, but paused and continued to speak before striking the end with his hammer. While Toue went on to explain the obvious physical superiority a machine would have over a normal performer (such as not needing food or sleep), Mizuki noticed something was wrong.

The unit, seated on the black stool, looked terrified. They gripped the edge of the chair in their gloved hands, trembling, with what appeared to be tears forming in the corners of its eyes and its breathing quickening. Toue’s hammer swung downwards in a strong arc, forcing the ice pick inside, splitting the skin by the base of the neck apart. A tiny whimper escaped from unit R-2E-054, but they bit down on their lip. The hammer came down again and again, harder and harder, and a seam began to appear in the neck of the IdolMate. As Toue twisted the orbitoclast inwards and upwards with a final blow, a scream of pain escaped from the white haired boy, tears streaming down its face. Toue frowned. Then he leaned over and peeled open the unit’s back chassis, revealing the stark metal innards underneath. As the unit tried to stifle sobs with their gloved hands, Toue turned to the crowd and smiled apologetically.

“This unit,” he explained, “Is only a mere prototype. I assure you the real article will not be nearly as disruptive when you need to perform maintenance. In fact,” he continued, leaning in close towards the robot’s ear, “This defect may be disposed of after the showcase if it continues to give us any more trouble.” The sobbing choked off and was reduced to sniffling. Toue continued with his vivisection, going through some of the functions of each piece inside without going into details about how they were engineered or designed, but Mizuki wasn’t paying attention to him. He was too busy watching the artificial tears roll down the robot’s cheeks, and the very real pain in its eyes.


	2. Prelude

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mizuki goes on to observe the new IdolMate first-hand, and finds out that it's adorable. The other guests seem to think so, too.

After the presentation, Toue resealed unit R-2E-054’s skin and went to mingle among his guests, telling the robot to remain seated in the stool. They swarmed him like ants at a picnic, asking him questions ranging from pricing to whether or not the IdolMates would be customizable. Mizuki went in the other direction, trying to get a closer look at it. A few guests surrounded the IdolMate and were talking about it like a prize hog at a county fair, poking, pulling, and prodding at its face and skin.

“My, just look at this hair! The fibres are absolutely unlike anything I’ve ever seen. The way it’s woven in doesn’t look anything like wefting at all! Truly marvelous work.”

“I wonder what sort of polymer Toue’s used for the skin here? It’s so soft, but it feels unmistakably skin-like. Look, it even turns red if you pinch at it! Incredible.”

The robot looked uncomfortable, wincing at the different prods of various viewers. Mizuki looked towards Toue. Surely, he thought, he would do something. Surely he’d tell them to back off. Feeling his gaze, the CEO glanced his way, smiled politely, and returned to his conversation. Apparently it didn’t faze him. Mizuki overheard two women at the fringes of the circle giggling to each other.

“Ohoho, do you think it’s ‘anatomically correct’?”

“Oh, you dirty girl, it’s a singer and a dancer, not a ladies companion! All of those extra parts would just get in the way.”

“Well, how do we know if it’s supposed to be _male_? It’s a very pretty little thing.”

“It could easily be adjusted to personal preferences, I’m sure.”

This last woman, a middle aged harpy with oddly colored hair, pushed her way to the front, shooing away the pinching and pulling spectators with her hands, and smiled at the IdolMate coyly.

“Hello there, dear. What should we call you?” The white haired boy looked surprised, then relieved, then elated.

“My name is Clear.” It whispered, looking down at its white boots shyly, and then up through its long white eyelashes. Gloved hands fidgeted in their lap. The woman and her companions all squealed.

“Oh my god!”

“How precious!”

The woman who asked him his name motioned to her friends to be quiet.

“Come on now, how about you stand up and let us get a good look at you? Give us a little spin.” Clear, a puzzled look on their face, complied. The woman clapped excitedly, and Mizuki overheard one of her friends giggle,

“Definitely got _somethin’ down there….”_

A man, grinning, who’d joined the gawkers, came forward and pulled the robot’s white shirt open, revealing a flat, pale chest and two pinkish nipples. The women squealed in delighted surprise. The IdolMate, turning red as a beet, pulled back, pushing them away.

“Didn’t like that too much,” the man laughed.

“Oh, I want to touch them!” A different woman squeaked. “They’re so _cute!_ ” She moved forward to touch him, but this time Clear put its arms up in front of themselves protectively, eyes getting moist, lip trembling a bit. Mizuki looked into the robots eyes and saw a flash of…something. Turning from the crowd, the white haired boy ran backstage, pulling their shirt around them as they went. The crowd groaned in disappointment, and Mizuki looked over and saw Toue frown.

This wasn’t right.

Mizuki, ignoring the calls of a few people in the room he was acquainted with, pushed past the dispersing crowd and went backstage. The android was crouched in the far back corner of the stage, its white pants dirtied by the backstage dust. It was curled in a fetal position, it’s still pink cheeks moist and resting on its knees, gloved hands locked around its legs. Clear’s head shot up, aware of Mizuki’s presence, and locked his eyes on him, looking at first panicked, then wary. Mizuki could feel it physically tensing up to flee, like a tiny deer in the woods. Mizuki held his hands up in a sign of goodwill.

“Easy.” he said, quietly. “I’m not here to hurt you. I just want to talk.” The robot, still suspicious, just stared at him with those big pink eyes. Mizuki lowered himself to the floor, uncaring about the dust that got on his suit. Mizuki exhaled slowly, trying to find the right words to say.

“I’m sorry they treated you that way.” He said finally. “I think Toue should’ve done something to stop them.” They were silent for a few moments, staring at the floor. “You have a beautiful voice, you know.” The robot shook his head, slowly.

“Thank you, but you’re wrong.” Mizuki blinked.

“What do you mean?”

“About my voice. It’s not beautiful at all. It’s only okay. That’s what master says. Because I’m defective.” The robot rubbed at the moles by its lip self-consciously. “It’s not supposed to sound this way. So I’m broken.” Mizuki smiled.

“But you like to sing, right?” The robot nodded, finally smiling.

“Yes. I like to sing more than anything. Because when I sing I can make people happy.” The smile vanished. “Everyone but master, that is.” It went silent again, looking downcast. Mizuki thought of something. He took the ring off of his middle right finger, and held it out to the robot.

“Do you see this?” The android took it in his gloved hands and squinted at it. It was a black stone with swirls of gray set in a band of black enamel.

“It’s pretty. What is it?” Taking the ring back and replacing it on his right hand, Mizuki tapped on the gemstone.

“This,” he said, “is a stone called chrysocolla. Normally, it’s blue. But this one,” he said gesturing to it, “due to what some people consider imperfections, is black. But that doesn’t make it any less precious. It just means it takes a different sort of person to see their value.” The robot’s eyes widened as it turned towards him, face beaming. It smiled at him, blushing.

And that was when it clicked. What he’d heard before when it sang. The feeling he’d seen in its eyes when it ran away from the crowd. _Humanity_.

Or at least, he corrected himself, something very close to it. It was the sort of rawness that you rarely came across in most performers and people in general, because by the time they got anywhere in life they’d learned to hide it. It was the sort of thing that would make people cry when they heard that robot sing, and then have those people tell their friends to go listen to its song. It was, from a pure business standpoint, a perfect marketing storm.

“What would you say,” he began, “If I told you that I could find a way to let you sing all the time? A way that might make Toue happy too? Would you want to do it?” Clear’s eyes widened even more, and its face spread into a wide grin. It reached out, and fervently clasped Mizuki’s hands in their gloved ones.

“Of course I would! Could you?” it asked, excitedly. “Could you do that? Is it possible that someone broken like me can make master happy?” Mizuki smiled and nodded.

“Yes, I think so. I’m gonna go talk to him about it right now.” Clear laughed joyously, pulling Mizuki into a tight, warm hug.

“Thank you! Thank you thank you thank you thank you!” It was practically vibrating with excitement, and Mizuki felt a warm droplet of what he was sure were tears on the side of his face. Mizuki laughed too. For a robot, it sure had a lot of emotions. Clear pulled back, eyes wide in surprise again.

“Wait, I don’t even know your name! That’s so rude of me. I’m sorry.” Mizuki laughed again.

“Don’t worry about it. I’m Mizuki.”

“Mizuki…” Clear repeated. “Mi-zu-ki.” Clear smiled again. “I like it.” The robot bowed to him.

“Thank you very much, Mizuki. I’m very grateful for what you said to me today. And I’m very grateful that you’ll talk to master for me.” The robot blushed again. “A-and…. Here.” Before Mizuki could react, Clear moved forward and gave him a soft kiss on the lips. It was… warm. Much warmer than he expected, and its lips were softer than any other lips he’d ever kissed in his life.

Clear turned and ran off the side off the stage left exit- pausing only for a moment to shyly wave goodbye- leaving Mizuki speechless.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is actually the first time I've written a fic and left myself a buffer! XD I highly recommend doing so, it's much less stressful. I've outlined all the way to the end of the story, too, so now I know where the story is going to end. But I'm probably going to end up writing a of couple one-shots in this AU, anyway. In next week's chapter, Mizuki starts working for Toue Entertainment and working with Clear.


	3. First Movement

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mizuki strikes a deal with Toue and becomes the new songwriter for Toue Entertainment's new Music Division. But even though things with Clear start off well, he has no idea that things are about to change forever.

Once Mizuki outlined his business plan to Toue, he had very little trouble convincing him of Clear’s value. It was simple enough, really; the robot had no need for extensive training, its needs were non-existent, and there was no need to negotiate contracts.

“I hardly believe I didn’t come up with the idea!” The old man exclaimed. “IdolMates as performance artists instead of accessories! Yes, you’re absolutely right… it’s a perfect fit. No scandals, no aging, hell, there’s even no limit to the amount of practice we can put it through. Absolutely marvelous.”Toue steepled his fingers, eyes glittering with greed.

“All we’ll need to do is change the public production models. Maybe into something female. We wanted to do that at first,” he explained, “but the engineers were concerned that there wouldn’t be enough room for the hardware in a smaller frame. Won’t be an issue now, since we’ve managed to fine-tune things. But I’m still pleased with how striking the initial design came out.” Mizuki nodded, unsure of what to say.

“That’s one of the reasons I feel like he’d be good material for a solo artist; there’s no one who looks quite like him.”

“It,” Toue corrected. “ _It_ , not _him_. You mustn’t forget that, or else it might get a false sense of worth. Anyway, you’re not entirely right about its looks being unique. At the moment there are two units nearly identical to the Alpha unit in the lab. They were meant to be an improvement upon the original, but they’re a bit irrelevant now. They can serve as auxiliary performers, I suppose.” Mizuki’s brow wrinkled.

“Improvements? How so?”

“Well, for one thing,” Toue began, “We set R-2E-054’s empathy levels much too high. We wanted to give it the ability to relate to humans, but retain the logical superiority of a machine. This unit misinterprets itself as actually having emotions. It seems to have issues regulating their emotional ‘responses’ as well- it’s quite absurd, frankly. But I’m sure that can be fixed with a little more training.”

“Which means,” he continued, turning to Mizuki, “All you’ll need to worry about is providing songs for the little bird to sing.” Mizuki blinked.

“Me?”

“Of course. As the one who suggested such an idea, it’s only fitting that you become the exclusive composer for Toue Entertainment’s new music division. If you do well, I’ll even provide you with the title of ‘co-producer’. It’ll be very busy at first, of course, but I’m sure with the influx of attention you’ve gotten recently you’ll adjust fairly quickly.” He smiled, peering at Mizuki over steepled fingers.

“So, what do you say?” He extended a gloved hand across his desk. Mizuki hesitated for a moment. He didn’t really _want_ to write pop songs, but refusing this sort of offer… well, people who refused Toue generally didn’t last very long in the industry. Besides, it wouldn’t be forever, right? A few albums and he’d be able to go back to his personal projects. He made the deal, and Toue smiled in a way that made him shiver.

“We’ll draw up the paperwork tomorrow morning,” the old man said, rising to his feet. “In the meantime, I’d suggest you prepare your things for relocation.”

“Relocation?” Mizuki echoed.

“Of course. As a member of my personnel, I expect you to give 100% to the company- and in return, the company takes care of you. Most of our executives reside in Platinum Jail apartments provided by the company.”

Mizuki, stunned, only managed to stutter out a ‘Thank you sir’ before Toue dismissed him with a nod. He exited the Oval Tower office feeling a bit faint. Even now, with his relative success, he couldn’t afford to _rent_ a place in Platinum Jail for a week. Now he would be living here? Shit, he was a long way from the Southern District now. Waiting in the elevator, he found his mind wandering back to the kiss he’d shared backstage with the robot. _What the hell was that?_ His hand strayed to his lips once again.

It probably had no idea about the significance of the gesture, he reasoned. It probably saw a video of a kiss or something and thought it was normal to do that. It wasn’t that he’d disliked it- Mizuki had kissed plenty of people in his life, women and men- it was just that it was very unexpected. But it’s not unusual for people to want some warning before they’re kissed, Mizuki reassured himself. Even allosexual people. _I suppose I can always mention it to Toue if it becomes an issue._

Like Toue said, the next few days were very busy for Mizuki. He not only had to learn his way around a new recording studio, but also a new apartment, neighborhood, and workplace. The apartment was by far the nicest place he’d ever been inside in his entire life. It even had a name printed on a plate above the door- ‘ _Luminescent_ ’. Fancy _._

Much to his surprise, there was even a full kitchen and bar in there- not that he’d be using much of the former. He wasn’t too much of a cook. But the later, he’d _definitely_ use. Some people relaxed by reading. Some people relaxed by watching TV. Mizuki liked to relax with a drink, and occasionally, a cigarette. He was trying to ween himself off of normal cigarettes in favor of e-cigs, but there was just something so therapeutic about the lighting of a real cigarette they couldn’t quite replicate, so he kept an ashtray around all the same.

 

 

It wasn’t until late in the week that he had his first session with Clear. It was 9 AM on a Thursday when Mizuki entered the studio, and he was almost immediately bowled over by a blur of light blue.

“Mizukiiiiiiii! You did it! You did it you did it you did it! Thank you!”

It was Clear, wearing an airy periwinkle sundress that showed off his softly toned biceps, which were crushing Mizuki in an excited embrace. It was like being greeted by a 200-pound puppy, Mizuki thought as he gasped for breath. The IdolMate noticed his face turning purple and hurriedly released him, apologizing profusely. As he regained the color in his face, Clear chattered to him about how excited he was to work together.

“Master’s been really nice to me ever since you spoke with him! He’s letting me play with the other staff members a lot more now, so I’ve been learning a lot. He’s even letting me pick out my own clothes! I like this one because it’s all swishy. Your clothes look really cool today, too! Is that how you always dress? Does it take a long time to use the bathroom with all of those belts? Oh! I’m sorry; I shouldn’t ask something so rude. Wow, you have pierced ears, too- oh, what’s that?” Mizuki had pulled a binder out of his bag, offering it to him. 

“I’ve already started working on a song for you. Right now it’s only a hook and a chorus, but I think it’s got some promise.” Clear took the binder from his hands and studied the sheet music inside.

“I wasn’t really sure what you’re into, so I haven’t written words to it or anything like that yet. Once we’ve gotten to know each other better it’ll get easier to write stuff for you.” Clear didn’t answer. He was busy staring intensely at the sheet music. After a few moments, he looked at Mizuki, confused.

“What does this mean?” he asked, pointing at the treble clef.

“That’s a treble clef. It tells you what scale the song is in.” Clear nodded thoughtfully.

“And what about all of these?” he pointed at the rest of the first meter. Mizuki had seen enough sitcoms to understand what was going on.

“You can’t read a musical staff, can you?” Clear shrugged and shook his head.

“The only staff I’m allowed to talk to are the ones that work in the tech lab.” Mizuki swallowed a laugh.

 

“Well, that’s not that bad. I’ve met plenty of musicians who can’t read sheet music. Here…”

Taking the music out of Clear’s hands, he wrote in the names of the notes above the staff, and handed it back to the robot. Looking over it again, its look of puzzlement only intensified.

“Wh-what are these weird marks? I can tell they’re like, western letters, but you said you didn’t write any words yet.”

 _Oh._ Mizuki felt a pit open up in his stomach. It didn’t know anything. He sighed, and motioned for Clear to sit down with him at a nearby table.

“Okay, so how do you know what the songs you’re supposed to sing sound like?”

“I hear them and then I sing them back.”

 

Mizuki nodded. His programming was mostly set by ear, then. Okay, that was a start. But he had absolutely no idea about musical notation. He walked over to the piano and gestured for the robot to join him.

“This,” he said, lifting the cover, “Is a piano.”

Clear puffed out his cheeks, annoyed.

“I know what a piano is, Mizuki!” Mizuki sighed with relief.

“Good, that’s one thing out of the way, then. So I guess you know that most people write the melody of songs on the piano or violin first and add accompaniment later.” Clear nodded.

“Yeah. But why?”

“I’m pretty sure it’s because the piano and violin match pretty well to the human voice range. Anyway, the melody is the part that most people remember about a song, so if you work hard on making that good, it’s more likely to do well. This note here,” he continued, pointing to the first note on the sheet music, “Is a C chord. This C is on the piano,” he pushed middle C, “here. Middle C.”

“Middle C?”

“Yeah. There’s more than one C, but since this one’s in the middle, we call it middle C. Music notation only goes from A to G.” He played keys A through G. “Then after G, it starts over from A, but then it’s one octave higher.” He alternated between tapping key A1 and key A2. Clear made a face.

“That’s way too complicated.” Mizuki laughed.

“Yeah, I said the same thing when I was a kid. But you get used to it. For now, though, I’ll just play what I write for you on the piano, okay?” Clear nodded eagerly. Mizuki flexed his fingers, and played the first ten bars. It was an upbeat I–V–vi–IV progression in C major, nothing revolutionary, but Clear still bounced along to the beat, smiling. When he finished, the robot spoke, nodding.

“That’s great, Mizuki! I think it’d be really cool if you added some percussion, that sounds like, umsh-snap, umsh-snap, in 2/4th time over top of that. It’d give the song more depth, I think.” That was a surprise. He hadn’t expected it to have any immediate ideas- especially given the fact that they knew so little about music- but that was actually a good suggestion. He made a note of it in the margins.

“Any ideas on themes, then?”

Clear nodded again.

“I think it’d be cool if the first thing we worked on was about me, you know? Like, an introduction, from me to the audience. Like why I’m here and all that.” Mizuki nodded. Yeah, why not start out with something basic.

“Could you play the chorus part again?” Mizuki complied. “Yeah, something like… ‘Now I’m here~ I’m with you, on this stage, to sing~ Ready to take the limelight, ready to play my part. Ready to sing you the music from my heart!~’” He imitated the melody of the piano perfectly, and was even doing cute little hand motions to go along with the lyrics he’d just made up. Mizuki nodded, impressed.

“Yeah, that’s good. The wording could probably be improved, but that’s good.” Pulling a blank sheet from the binder, he scribbled down the words Clear had just sang, and marked it as ‘Chorus(?)’. Just then, the door opened, and Toue entered. Clear sprung from the bench as if electrified.

 

“Master! Good morning!” Toue ignored the greeting.

“I see the two of you have already begun working. That’s good. The new Alpha models should be finished with calibrations in about a week, but until then you can start work with just this one.” Clear’s eyes widened, but he stayed silent.

“Sir,” Mizuki asked, “Is there a reason why Clear wasn’t designed with an ability to read musical notation?”

“Ah, yes. I was going to mention that to you. Since they weren’t designed with this purpose in mind, it was hardly necessary for them to read sheet music. All they needed to do was be able to harmonize with the lead performers and repeat phrases. Like a parrot, only a bit smarter.” He shrugged, shaking his head. “It’s an unfortunate oversight on my part, but it shouldn’t become too much of a problem. All of our AIs have a very good learning curve.” Mizuki nodded.

“Is there anything else you came by to ask?”

“No, no. I just wanted to see how things were going. As far as the particulars go, I don’t mind what process you use for songwriting. As long as I get results,” he said, eyes flickering to the robot briefly, “I don’t mind unconventional methods.” Mizuki shifted on the piano bench uncomfortably. What was he saying?

“Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some other business to attend to. I look forward to seeing what you’re capable of.”

With that, Toue exited as quickly as he’d entered, leaving Clear standing by the piano bench.

The white haired boy sunk back down to the bench slowly, a sad air enveloping him. He rested his head on Mizuki’s shoulder and sighed. His legs brushed against Mizuki’s briefly. The robot blinked slowly, and peeped up at his producer through his thick white lashes.

“Are you okay?” he whispered. “Your heart just sped up a lot.”

“You can hear that well?” Clear nodded.

“What’s wrong?”

“It’s nothing. I’m fine.” Mizuki avoided eye contact, trying to get his heartbeat to slow.

Why was he reacting this way? This kid wasn’t even human. Then the memory of the kiss flashed in his mind and he felt his face get hot. Damn it, this was hardly the time to think about dumb shit like that! He shook his head, trying to clear any of those remaining thoughts in his head, but it was hard with it practically lying on top of him.

“The other day…” he began, slowly, “Backstage, the day I met you…why did you kiss me?”

Clear sat up, turning to look him in the face. Their pink eyes met his green ones, and then hovered to his cheeks, his nose, his lips, then back to his eyes.

               “One time, I saw a movie on TV once where there was a knight who helped a princess escape from a tower. After they got out, she was really happy, and she gave him a kiss as a thank you. That made the knight really happy, too. That’s why. Because it’s what you do to say thank you.”  


Mizuki nodded. As he suspected, the robot had no idea what sort of weight his actions had. He felt strangely disappointed. _Why, though?_ Romance always caused him more trouble than it was worth. And he wasn’t even looking for a relationship right now.

While he was preoccupied with these thoughts, he failed to notice that the robot had moved his face closer to Mizuki’s, his slow, warm breathing tickling his face. Their faces were now mere centimeters from each other, and Mizuki’s lips burned at the memory of the kiss. Instead, Clear moved his face to the side and nuzzled against Mizuki’s cheek.

Startled, Mizuki pulled away. Clear just blinked, and made no move to continue. Instead, Clear just sighed, twiddling his gloved fingers before reaching over to the keyboard to gently press the C key, letting his fingers idly climb up and down the scale.

 

Mizuki decided to end their session early that day.

“I think before we meet up again, you need to try listening to more music. Build a familiarity with the structure. Develop an appreciation for different styles.” He shrugged. “Build some fundamentals.” Clear was silent, and just nodded.

“In the meantime,” Mizuki continued, “Try to find some things you like. Something you’d like to sing about. That way we can get idea of what sort of themes we can work with, okay?” The android nodded compliantly, still in a daze. “I guess… I’ll see you tomorrow.”

And then Mizuki left, leaving Clear staring at the piano keys that were as white as his hair.

 

After the studio door shut behind him, Clear slumped on top of the piano, making it clang dissonantly. He just wanted Mizuki to be his friend. Someone to talk with, and laugh with. Someone who’d be nice to him all the time, not just when he did the things they asked him to do. A _real_ friend.

Master Toue’s words echoed in his head again.

_You are worthless. You are broken. But above all else, you belong to me. Never forget that._

“That’s right,” Clear mumbled, repeating his master’s words to himself. “I only exist for Master.”

It was the truth, and he knew it. But why did saying it out loud make him feel so hollow?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aaaaaaahhh, I get so impatient when it comes to posting these updates! I have to restrain myself to only one chapter a week. In the next chapter, Clear goes on the internet and tries to research what sort of music he should study to impress his new teacher. Meanwhile, the Alphas are all done with their calibrations and generally act like big jerks to him.


	4. Second Movement

 

Clear signed onto the Oval Tower’s wi-fi and got online. Master didn’t let him go outside all that much, so he usually ended up learning a lot of things on the internet. Especially a popular message board called Eddit. He logged onto his account and posted a new thread in the “Music” subforum.

 

**_Thread #88734: Suggestions for someone new to studying music?_ ** **_By Clear-2E-01_ **

 

 **Clear-2E-01** posted:

“ _Hi, everyone. My music teacher told me to listen to a wide variety of music so I can learn to appreciate different styles and typical musical structure. Any suggestions?_ ”

 

* * *

Comments

 

_**Headless_maestro** replied: _

“ _That’s a bit vague_. _What are you studying, specifically?”_

 

 

>   _**Clear-2E-01** replied_ : _“Well, I’m working hard at becoming a singer, so at the moment he’s teaching me about the piano. ^__^”_

  
_**Headless_maestro** replied: _

_“Piano, huh? Well that’s not too bad. As far as classical pieces go, I’d definitely recommend listening to Lizst and Mussorgsky. Everyone always recommends Beethoven and Mozart, but I really feel like these two are severely underrated. They’re both very lush, you know?”_

_**GreasedLightning44** replied: _

_“Dude, you HAVE to listen to the Beatles albums all the way through the LOVE album. They paved the way for most of today’s popular music genres.”_

  *   _Warmann99 replied: “Ditto on the Beatles, but I’d have to say that second wave British invasion is far superior. I’m talking Queen, Led Zepplin, and The Who. Long live rock and roll!_ \m/ (>.<)\m _/_ ” 



 

 ** _Purplepandas337_** replied:

 _“OMG, you have GOT to listen to Radiohead’s_ OK Computer _and_ In Rainbows _. They’re so awesome._ ”

 

_**Whit3_Smok3** replied: “man wtf is with all of you guys?? how about some music from this century, like Brainutz or M-3?_

  *   _**Whittney_22** replied: “OMG, whit3_smok3, I was totally about to suggest M-3! OP, if u’ve never heard of M-3, you should _totally _check them out! I listened to them religiously when I was younger. Their harmonies are just WOW.”_



 

  *   _**Mybaad** replied to **Whittney_22** : “I remember those guys! Oh my god, all of the girls in my middle school were OBSESSED with them. I never saw what was so appealing about them. Naturally, some assholes spread rumors about me being a lesbian because of that.”_



  *   _**Whittney_22** replied: “OMG, that’s super shitty D:”_



  *   _**Mybaad** replied: “Well, it helped me figure out I actually _**was** _a lesbian and get my first girlfriend, so I guess it worked out, lol.”_



  *   _**Lolldeal** replied: “lmao, nice. didn’t it turn out one of them was totally gay, too?”_



  *   _**Whittney_22** replied: “WHAT?? Who??”_



  *   _**Lookonos** replied: “pretty sure it was that cutesy one that everyone wanted to have as their little brother. What was his name again? Albert?” _



  *   _**Nexttoni** replied: “lmao, lookonos, they were Japanese, pretty sure his name wasn’t Albert :P”_



  *   _**Prodigyny** replied: “It was Aoba! I remember I practically shit myself when I found out that he and Ren were dating.”_



  *   _**Lookonos** replied: “EW, weren’t they releated??!”_



  *   _**Prodigyny** replied: “Nah, everyone thought they were, but it turns out they were both orphans and they were just super close.”_



  * _**Whitney_22** replied: “holy shit, do you think they were fucking the whole time, too?? Childhood = ruined :|”_



  *   _**Memetrash_69** replied: “THANKS, AOBAMA”_



  *   _**Slyblue** replied: “lmao wouldn’t it be hilarious if he was reading this and laughin his ass off that everyone thought he was str8? Never had me fooled. Bro _ totally _looks like he’s sucked his share of dicks.”_



_**Badger_badger_badger** replied: “I’m gonna have to disagree with everyone’s praise for M-3. I wasn’t much into their whole scene since I was about in my 20s or so when they debuted, so I don’t have all of that nostalgia mixed in with my memories about them. To me they just seemed like another mass-produced pretty-boy band :|” _

  *   _**Lolldeal** replied: “You might not like their music, but you gotta admit that their entire Cute-Cool-Sensitive paradigm revolutionized the modern idol scene. Their label really knew how to market those kids.” _



_**Michead** replied: “@ Whittney_22: Man, that brings me back! I remember in high school I had a poster of Ren taped to my ceiling so I could see him before I went to bed xD I was so convinced that I’d somehow run into him one day and we’d end up getting married, lmao. _

_But I agree with Lolldeal on this one- even though their music was rather forgettable, the cultural impact they had was enormous. Even after they broke up people were trying to replicate their success.”_

  *   _**Blind-bat** replied: “While we’re on the subject of idol groups, there are quite a few good girl groups out there you should look at. OP, you’d probably have a better idea of what’s popular over there now than I would, so it’s probably best to do some looking on your own. :P” _



_**Slyblue** replied: “OP needs to get his honky ass _ educated _. I’m talkin’ about the WU-TANG CLAN, I’m talkin’ Outkast, I’m talking Snoop Doggy Dogg, and I’m talking LL Cool J. Then you can stroll your ass down to the house that Biggie and Tupac built and get your mind blown by how crazy relevant their rhymes still are.”_

  *   _**Clear-2E-01** replied: “I’m sorry, slyblue, but I’m really more interested in songs that involve more instrumentals. :( Thanks for the suggestions, though! As far as everyone else goes, I’m definitely going to check out M-3 and your other suggestions as well, but please try to stay on-topic, thanks :)” _



_**Arpeggio** replied: “I’m surprised no one’s mentioned Arcade Fire or Beyonce yet.”_

_**Shuu** replied: “Basement Jaxx and Daft Punk! :D They got some club bangers, so they’d make good rhythm studies. ” _

  *   _**Diedrich** replied: “Greetings from Berlin! I definitely second that you should check out some EDM/electronic music artists. There’s this DJ out here that’s been blowing up lately; he goes by Noiz (Apparently that’s his real name…?) Supposedly he’s some sort of virtuoso. No clue why he’d start making EDM, but hey, that sort of talent is great for the growth of the genre.” _



_**Baka_gyaru** replied: “how about Kyary Pamyu Pamyu or Capsule?”_

  *   _**Michead** replied: “boo, get that weeaboo shit outta here.”_



  *   _**Blind-bat** replied: “it’s not weeaboo shit, OP is located in Japan”_



  *   _**Michead** replied: “just don’t start trying to learn bunch of anime openings on piano for a recital. I did that once and everyone made fun of me V.V” _



_**Clear-2E-01** replied: “Okay everyone, thanks so much for your suggestions! I’m going to check those out tonight and I’ll update you all on how it goes with my teacher. Thanks again!  <3”_

 

He went back to his homepage and clicked to check if his other thread (in the “Advice” subforum) had any comments yet.

 

**_Thread #99298344: How can I get someone to like me? By Clear-2E-01_ **

Clear-2E-01 posted:

“ _Hello, again. You guys were really helpful with my last post, but since then a couple of things have happened. There’s a guy I really like, but I’m not sure how to get him to like me back. I think he just sees me as a work friend. I kissed him before, but then when he asked me about it the next day I got really nervous and told him it didn’t mean anything…but the truth is, even with all of the stuff I talked about before, I’ve never kissed anyone else._

 _I really want to get closer to him, but we’re just so different that I have no idea where to start. Any advice?_ ”

 

* * *

 

Comments (9)                         

 

  *   **Bamboo** replied: _“Did he kiss u back?”_



 

> o   **Clear-2E-01** replied: _“What do you mean? :S”_

 

o   **Bamboo** replied: _“When u kissed him, did he go back in for another one?”_

 

> o   **Clear-2E-01** replied: _“No… I sort of ran away….”_

 

o   **Bamboo** replied: “ _Well if he didn’t go after you, he probably thinks ur uggo. Sorry. :|”_

 

  *   **Fosho-thing** replied: _“Wait until the next company party/outing to get a little flirty with him!”_



 

> o   **Candy-girl331** replied: “ _And then give him a blow job in the men’s restroom. You’ll definitely get his attention then ;)_ ”

 

  *   **Janie28** replied: “ _Don’t force things too much. If it’s meant to be, it’ll happen :) I’m super glad to hear that stuff with your boss got worked out, btw_.”



 

> o   **Clear-2E-01** replied: “ _Well, more or less. It’s actually sort of because of this guy that things have gotten a little better. It’s still not ideal, but better than it was :0) Thanks, Janie._ ”

 

He stayed online for about two more hours after that, his curiosity getting the best of him.

Later, having turned beet red, he erased his internet search history. He didn’t know those things had names.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope the format of this was okay? It looked more like a Reddit thread in the word document, sorry. I'm very quickly coming up on the end of my buffer, so i guess that's a sign I should get writing. XD In the next chapter, Mizuki meets the Alphas, and realizing that Clear doesn’t understand or get to see the outside world often, takes Clear out to the Aquarium.


	5. Third Movement: Aquarium

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Realizing that Clear doesn’t understand or get to see the outside world, Mizuki takes him on a date to the Aquarium. Chapter completed Nov. 1st.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Huge, HUGE trigger warning for pretty implicit sexual abuse. Obviously it comes up again in future chapters, but this is the only time it's directly referenced.

 Clear laid on his cot, headphones on, listening to an over two hour long playlist of recommended music. He was still wearing his blue dress, now wrinkling up against his cheap, hospital bed-like sheets. It’d been over 12 hours since his first session with Mizuki, but since he wasn’t allowed to go anywhere he didn’t see any reason to change. Besides, the only other clothing he owned was the white uniform Master had given him to wear for his testing and the presentation, and he didn’t want to wear that any more. Especially since _they_ wore the same thing.

His “brothers”, as master called them, were sitting by the television in the other end of the room, half watching a program about manufacturing cellphones.

One of them crumpled up a piece of paper into a ball and tossed it at Clear’s head. It bounced off him perfectly and into the trash can. Alpha 1 grinned, and jabbed Alpha 2 with his elbow. The twins started to send paper airplanes and more paper wads raining on their older brother. When a small pile started forming on his chest, Clear sat up, irritated, scattering paper debris all over the floor.

“Could you please stop that?”

Alpha 1 grinned wider.

“Make us.”

“You’ll have to clean it up later, you know.”

“No we don’t.” Alpha 2 said, reclining on the couch. “The staff can just come clean it up.”

“You guys are so rude,” Clear grumbled, picking the litter off the floor and depositing it in the trash bin, “and wasteful.”

Alpha 1 strolled over to Clear’s cot and flopped down on it.

“Hey! Your beds are over there.” Clear jabbed a finger at the two identical cots across from his. Alpha ignored him and rolled onto his side, propping his head up in his arms.

“Nii-san, what’cha doin, anyway?” he asked. Clear sighed, sitting on the floor next to his bed.

“Mizuki told me to listen to more music to learn more about song structure.”

“Sounds lame,” said Alpha 2, still seated on the couch, as he sent another paper airplane gliding to the floor. Alpha 1 nodded in agreement.

“Yeah, I mean, why are you taking orders from that loser? Isn’t he supposed to be the one writing the songs, anyway?”

“Well, yeah, but he was saying that it’s still important for me to understand it all even if he’s the one writing it.”

The twin on Clear’s bed made a face.

“What a nerd. Doesn’t he know you could just download all of that information and have it memorized immediately?”

“Well, no, but-“

“But what?”

“Well,” Clear began, playing with the cord of his headphones, “I thought it would be good to just learn it _normally_.”

Alpha 1 pushed himself up and stared at his predecessor disapprovingly.

 

“ _Normally?”_ he echoed, mockingly. “You mean _like a human.”_ Clear kept his eyes fixed on the white floor, his hands continuing to anxiously play with the earbuds.

 _“_ Why would you want to do something like that?” the twin on the couch said, sitting up and staring at him incredulously. “We’re _superior_ to them. Master invented us that way. Trying to be something lesser is beyond stupid.” Alpha 1 nodded in agreement.

“With thoughts like that it’s no wonder why Master wanted to have you scrapped.”

Clear’s hands clenched into fists, his gaze still fixed on the floor in front of him, and shook his head slowly.

“No. No he didn’t. He _said_ stuff like that, but never would’ve actually-“

Alpha 2 snorted derisively.

“Of _course_ he would. Why do you think he was making us, dumbass?”

“No. No, you’re wrong. Master wouldn’t destroy me. I’m important to him! He said so.” He was twisting at the fabric of his dress now, the soft chiffon crumpling in his grasp. He tried to sound resolute, but his wavering voice betrayed him.

Alpha 1 rolled his eyes.

“You really are stupid, aren’t you? Of course he would. _He made you._ It’s his decision to do with you whatever he wants.”

“Or us, for that matter. That’s why he’s _our Master._ ” Alpha 2 added, dangling his torso off the arm of the couch to look at his older brother upside down. He grinned, seeming to have an idea.

“Hey, I have an idea,” he continued, “should we tell Master you’ve forgotten your place? I’m sure he wouldn’t mind giving you another _lesson._ ” Clear shrank back, curling into a fetal position.

“Please don’t.” he whispered. Alpha 1 looked at him with disgust.

“It’s because of behavior like _that_ he keeps punishing you, you know. Fear is a human emotion, too. If you just shut up and took it quietly he’d probably get bored with you.” He shrugged- or at least, shrugged the best he could while lying on a bed- and shook his head. “Not that I care. I just hate seeing how ugly you make our face look with all that crying.”

 

Suddenly, the phone rang. Alpha 2 sighed and swung himself off the couch.

“I’ll get it.” He pressed the answer button on the TV’s remote, and it switched to a video feed of the downstairs lobby. It revealed Mizuki, looking a bit uneasy in his red jacket, a folder under one arm. He pushed the CALL button on the comm.

“Hey, Clear, are you there?” In the room, Clear’s head snapped up and turned toward the TV. Alpha 2 grinned, and while maintaining eye contact with his older brother, said,

“Yeah~ I’m here! I was just thinking about how much I love people, tee hee!” On screen, Mizuki looked bemused.

“I do _not_ sound like that!” Clear hissed, trying to pry the receiver from Alpha 2’s hands.

Even though they were the same height and equally as strong, the other managed to get away from Clear’s grasp long enough to toss the receiver to his twin on the bed when Mizuki buzzed back.

“Uh… okay? Is it all right for me to come up right now?”

“Of course it is!~” Alpha 1 replied in the same sing-song voice, “It’s always all right for _you_ to come up and visit.~” He batted his eyelashes in an imitation of Clear, and pressed a button on the receiver. “The elevator will take you right up, but you’ll have to scan your employee ID to open the door, okay~? See you soon!~” With that, the screen returned to the documentary channel and the call ended. Alpha 2 released Clear from where he’d pinned him to the floor. He stood up angrily, brushing the dust off his dress.

“You guys shouldn't do stuff like that! Impersonating other people is _illegal._ And it's mean!”

Both of the twins laughed.

“ _Uuwahh, I’m Clear!_ ” The one on the couch continued in a high pitched whine, “ _I cry when people touch me!”_ Clear turned bright red.

“C-cut it out!”

“ _Maybe, if I wish hard enough,”_ The one on the bed mimicked, placing his gloved hands over his chest in a shoujo anime girl pose, “ _I’ll become a human and someone will love me!”_ The two of them exploded in cackling laughter.

Clear, mortified, crawled back into his fetal position on the floor. Why did he have to live with these two? Couldn’t he go out on his own, go _anywhere_ other than having to spend all of his time training and dealing with their bullying?

He groaned and curled into himself even tighter, hoping to block out their laughter. He would rather be anywhere else than here- even having lessons in Master’s room, as awful as they were, was better than this. At least when he was with Master he could think about something else.

 

Mizuki tapped his foot nervously in the elevator. Maybe he’d made a mistake. Maybe it would’ve been better to wait to give him- _it_ , he corrected himself- the sheet music when they met up later that week. But no, it was better to get feedback on it right away- that was his job, right? So there was nothing weird about stopping by its private room on a weekend. Yeah, he was doing his job, Mizuki reassured himself.

The elevator dinged quietly as it reached the destined floor, and Mizuki felt a jolt of panic. _He was going to be alone with it._ Literally every time he’d been alone Clear it’d done something weird, and from the way it was talking on the intercom it seemed to be acting _exceptionally_ weird today. _Shit._ But it was too late. He was already headed down the clean white hallway, scanning his employee ID to unlock the door as he’d been instructed.

The door slid open with a soft beep. The room was plain- much plainer than he expected it to be, given the occupant- and extremely clean, painted the typical ‘Toue white’. He stepped through the door, and it swooshed closed behind him with a small click. One thing stood out starkly against the bare white floor- Clear, still in the periwinkle dress, huddled up in a ball next to an uncomfortable looking bed. He turned and smiled sadly at Mizuki when he heard the door slid shut. As Mizuki took in the contents of the room, he froze.

There, on the couch and the cot next to the original, were two more versions of Clear- two IdolMates- staring at him coldly. The one on the couch appeared to be boredly flipping through a magazine, and the one on the cot are glared at him briefly before returning hid gaze to the ceiling and playing with his white hair idly. Clear shifted a bit on the floor, pulling the dress down so it covered the space between its legs properly, and turned to the clone seated on the cot next to him.

“Hey,” he sniffled, “You guys should introduce yourselves. This is our producer, Mizuki.” The one on the couch snorted.

“If he hasn’t already figured out who we are, he’s got no business being alive, let alone producing for us.” The one on the cot nodded in agreement. Clear frowned.

“Don’t be rude, guys. Mizuki, these are the other two IdolMates. The one on my bed is Alpha 1, and the one on the couch is Alpha 2. Master just calls them the Alphas, because they’re usually together.”

They both waved at him halfheartedly, and Mizuki attempted a friendly smile. He could already tell these two would be trouble. He decided to ignore them for now. He crouched down next to Clear and held out the red binder in hand.

“I, uh, brought you a mockup of the song we were working on the other day. There’s also an audio file in here, too, so you can hear it. I figured it would be a good way for you to start learning sheet music.” Clear smiled gratefully and took the folder from him. The movement caused his dress to shift a bit, giving Mizuki a peek of Clear’s underwear. They were small and silky, a pale blue ditsy floral print edged with white lace.

Mizuki looked away quickly, embarrassed, but the image of fabric clinging to the contours of the robot’s body was already burned into his retinas. The woman at the presentation had been right. There _was_ something there.

He wasn’t interested in whatever it was, though. Well, not entirely uninterested, just not in a way that other people probably would be. He was more embarrassed than anything. Mizuki silently prayed the robot hadn’t noticed his glance or his discomfort. He looked over, and thankfully, the robot’s thoughts seemed to be occupied elsewhere. Eager to distract himself from thoughts of underwear and the things they contained, he changed the subject.

“Is something wrong? You seem sort of bummed out.” An understatement. The room was permeated with a feeling of gloom. Clear looked up at him from his fetal position, but said nothing for a few moments.

“Can we go outside?” he asked quietly.

Mizuki smiled.

“Yeah, of course. C’mon.”

He rose to his feet, and offered a hand to the seated boy. Clear took it, and put the folder on top of a nearby bookshelf before pulling on a pair of ballet flats and leading Mizuki out of the room, followed by the death glares of his younger brothers. When the door clicked shut behind them, Clear sighed in relief and seemed to relax, letting Mizuki take the lead.

“You really must not like them, huh?”

“Ugh, Mizuki, they’re so _awful_!” he buried his face in Mizuki’s leather jacket, entwining around his arm like a baby chimp clinging to its mother. “They’re nothing like me, and they make fun of me all the time! But the worst thing is that I’m not allowed to go outside on my own, so I’m just around them _all the time_.”

“So, you mean you haven’t been in Platinum Jail at all? You’ve never seen any of the stuff they have out there?” Clear shook his head, still buried in his sleeve.

No wonder he had a hard time relating to people, Mizuki thought. What the hell was Toue thinking, keeping him shut in like this? He’d never be able to convincingly sing songs about the sort of things people like to do if he had no experience with anything outside the laboratory. Mizuki sighed, knowing he was probably going to regret this later, but he really didn’t have much of a choice, did he? It was his job.

“C’mon. Let’s go have some fun, okay?” He didn’t even need to look over to see the awed, starry-eyed look Clear gave him then. He could practically _feel_ it.

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

As soon as they emerged on Aqua Forest, Clear was like a dog let loose in a park. In a way, Mizuki thought, Platinum Jail _was_ a park- an enormous theme park. It was fun and entertaining, but undeniably fake. He distantly wondered if this was what parents felt like when they took their kids to Disneyland- happy to be with them, and glad to see them enjoying themselves, but painfully aware that this happiness, like so many others, was a temporary, artificial one that had a price.

(But then again, it was because he was that jaded as a kid that his parents never took him to a theme park.)

“Mizuki! Mizuki, look at all of the lights! It’s so pretty!” Clear twirled, his gloved hands stretched out _Sound of Music_ style, his dress whirling around him. “And over here on the floor, there’s more lights- ack!”

Clear leapt back as a spurt of water erupted from the ground in front of him and crossed to the other side of the plaza. The robot watched in wide-eyed wonder as another stream of water emerged from a different spot in the tile, leapt across the plaza, and disappeared back into the floor. Then the pattern changed, and the bursts of water leapt up and down in alternating rows, all lit up underneath by colored lights.

“That’s a jumping fountain. See, the water comes out of one hole and goes into another. They’re programmed to change patterns, too.” Clear’s eyes sparkled.

“I wanna play in it,” he whispered.

“That’s probably not a good idea. You’ll get wet, and the only clothes you have-“

But Clear wasn’t listening. He dashed across the plaza, trying to dodge the streams of water, laughing. Mizuki sighed and smiled. Yeah, he knew that was going to happen.

He stood by a safe distance away and watched Clear hop around the fountain for about ten minutes, until Clear got shot in the head with a spout of water that left his hair dripping. Clear came back to Mizuki looking like a puppy who just got yelled at.

“I got wet. I’m sorry.”

Mizuki just shook his head, grinning. They stopped in a gift shop and bought a beach towel to dry his hair with, and continued walking through the city. The two of them were on their way to the aquarium when something caught the robot’s attention in a storefront.

                _COMING SOON TO PLATINUM JAIL AND THEN THE WORLD, THE NEW IDOLMATE OMEGA!_

_Featuring a slimmer, more lithe design and effeminate form, the IdolMate Omega (Model name: Usui) will soon be featured alongside the voices and personalities of some of the world’s most famous music acts!_

Alongside the text was a female figure, clothed in a crop top and a hi-low skirt on the left side. On the other side, the skin cut away to the metal armature containing the Omega model’s inner workings, mechanical lungs and heart, and a blank, staring yellow eyeball. Clear looked a bit uneasy.

“You okay?” Clear shook his head.

                “It’s just really weird, seeing the inside of her like that. It’s weird to think that I’m the same, too.” A single gloved hand reached up and gripped the side where his heart was. He closed his eyes and sighed. “It’s weird, because, like, I’ve seen myself without any skin or anything. Just like this, all over. But I can still recognize it’s me. There are a lot of people who wouldn’t, right?”

Instead of waiting for Mizuki to answer, he walked over to the adjacent display window.

“Anyway, I think the AllMates are much more fun. Like this one. It’s a fluffy little doggie.”

 

He turned to Mizuki.

“Do you have an AllMate?”

Mizuki nodded.   
“Yeah. A little ferret-thing named Jojo. I don’t use him as much as I used to, though.”

“That’s no good. You should try and use him more. I’m sure he misses you.”

                “Can AllMates even do that?” Clear shrugged.

“I dunno. I think so. Even if they don’t say anything about it, I’m sure they do.” He rocked back and forth on his feet. “That’s one of the reasons I’m really glad you got Master to let me keep singing, you know. If it wasn’t for you, I’d probably be put in storage.” Clear went silent for a few moments.

“Anyway, what I’m trying to say is that everyone likes to feel important.” His eyes flickered to Mizuki’s and he smiled. “Even robots.”

“So,” Clear continued, tone brightening, “What’s this place we’re going to, again?”

 

The Aqua Forest Aquarium was just as grandiose as the rest of Platinum Jail, which was surprising considering that most of the visitors to the park were more interested in partying and decadence than observing nature. Mizuki’s personal theory-and the most likely explanation- was that a good majority of the patrons just went in to find something cool to look at after getting high in the bathroom. As for Clear, he bounced around each exhibit like a kid who snorted an entire pack of Pixie Stix. Until they arrived in the “Jellyfish Gallery”.

The room was round, with dark blue carpet and dark blue walls, but the orange-red lighting in the room made it appear pinkish and womb-like. In the center of the room was an enormous pillar-like tank filled with moon jellyfish, drifting serenely in the gentle artificial tide. On the walls where other tanks containing different species of jellyfish of all shapes and colors, their semi-transparent membranes backlit by black lights that made the moon jellies glow like their namesake. Clear stood in silent awe in front of the pillar, transfixed by the sight.

Mizuki glanced over at Clear. His pink eyes had a dreamy, half-lidded look to them, and his lips were parted slightly as his soft whispering breaths moved his chest up and down. His pale hair and skin seemed to glow in the ultraviolet light, and the air conditioning made the pale gown flutter around him slightly.

He wasn’t just pretty, Mizuki thought. _He was beautiful_. Almost like something from another world, with his downy hair brushing against his creamy skin. A swaying melody tinkled from the speakers in the ceiling, adding to the dream-like atmosphere. Mizuki wanted to push the white hair behind the android’s ear, to feel the contact of Clear’s soft skin against his, their silky hair between his fingers. (What was that called again- sensual attraction? He still had a hard time differentiating between his feelings.)

Mizuki found himself slowly reaching towards the android’s cheek, and stroked the side of his soft face with his long, tan fingers. Clear didn’t move. He just turned his face and focused his dreamy gaze on Mizuki.

Under the touch of his hands on his face, he could feel Clear quivering slightly. But why? Was he scared? Or did he misunderstand Mizuki’s intentions? He didn’t have any desire to sleep with him or seduce him- just to _touch_ him, to feel him. Mizuki smiled at him reassuringly.

“It’s okay. I’m not gonna do anything you tell me you don’t want, I promise.”

Mizuki leaned in, and planted a soft, lingering kiss on the robot’s cheek. Then another, on his lips, firm, with his mouth closed. And another on the cute little moles by his lips. Clear smiled and closed his eyes gently, leaning into Mizuki’s touch, tracing the teardrop tattoo on his cheek , mimicking his composer’s gentle caresses. The soft satin of his gloves felt cool against Mizuki’s flushed face.

Mizuki continued to kiss Clear, slowly, on his nose, his forehead, the curve of his neck, on each of his eyelids, like a butterfly flitting from flower to flower, while his hands felt around the rest of Clear’s serene face like a blind man. His heart was fluttering too, but that was because he couldn’t believe what he was doing. Literally every rational part of him told him that this was a mistake. Hell, he could lose his job for this.

He heard giggling and whispers from the other side of the room, emanating from a pack of younger kids ambling through the gallery, probably about 19 or 20. One guy shouted,

“Get a room!” before his friends elbowed him in the ribs and they all ran to the next room, giggling. Mizuki blushed, forcing himself to pull back.

Clear’s eyes fluttered open with concern.

“Why’d you stop?”

Mizuki shook his head, his brow furrowed. Apparently even with Clear’s great hearing he’d chosen to ignore the heckler.

“We’re- we’re just friends, okay? I just want you to know that.”

Clear was silent a moment. Then he smiled.

“But friends still do stuff like this, right?”

Mizuki sighed, pushing his hair back. Did they? He didn’t know.

He barely had time for friends. And even though he considered Aoba and Koujaku to be his good friends, they didn’t talk as much as they used to. Besides, he was certain he’d never had this sort of interaction with either of them. (Well, there was one time Aoba got really drunk and tried to make out with him, but that extremely short lived, because within the first two minutes Aoba threw up on him and passed out, and the whole time he was trying to feel Mizuki up through his pants. Needless to say, that incident did not do much for Mizuki’s asexuality.)

“Well, there are some people who do...So if you’d be okay with it, I guess we could.” he felt his face heat up even more. He never imagined he’d ever actually find someone who was okay with platonic kissing.

“Even at work?”

“No. Not at work.”

Clear frowned.

“Why not?”

“We have to keep a professional atmosphere at work. I don’t want Toue thinking I’m up to anything weird.” Clear’s face darkened at the mention of his master, but he nodded in understanding all the same.

“Okay. I get it.” The robot paused a moment, lost in thought. “What about a small one on the cheek now and then?” Mizuki shook his head firmly. No, they could definitely _not_ do anything like this at work. Clear leaned to give him another kiss, and although Mizuki didn’t move away, he could tell the moment was over.

“Clear- you have to _promise_ me you won’t tell anyone about this, okay? I could really get in trouble.”

The robot was silent.

“Promise?”

Clear sighed.

“Yeah. Okay. I promise.”

They were both silent for a few moments, unsure of what to do next, until Clear turned back to look at the jellyfish again. But this time, he leaned slightly against Mizuki, lacing his gloved fingers in his.

“I wanna write a song about jellyfish.” Clear murmured. “They’re really pretty.”

“Okay, then. I’ll start working on it tomorrow.”

“…Thank you, Mizuki.”

Mizuki shrugged.

“It’s my job.”

Clear smiled.

“I know. But this part isn’t. I was saying thank you for letting me go outside. And for being…my friend.” He kissed the teardrop tattoo on Mizuki’s cheek. Mizuki seemed a bit embarrassed.

“C’mon, it’s starting to get a little late. I don’t want the boss finding out you’re gone.”

 

After he swipe-unlocked the lab door and they said their goodbyes, Clear snuck another peck on Mizuki’s cheek before rushing into the room. Gift shop bag still in hand, he excitedly hopped onto the bed and buried a triumphant grin into his pillow. He’d done it! Well, Mizuki had done it, but he kissed him back! He was still vibrating from the sensation. He sat back up and pulled the little jellyfish plushie Mizuki had gotten him out of the gift shop bag. He squished it in his arms and rubbed his face on the soft chenille, giggling. It was so fluffy!

“Ah, you’re finally back,” said a cold voice from the other side of the room. Clear froze in terror. It was Master. He felt himself begin to shake involuntarily. Quickly, he hid the jellyfish under his wafer-thin pillow- it didn’t hide it, but it was the intent that mattered.

He saw Master was seated on the couch, just out of view from the entryway, his back towards him. Alpha 1 was draped over him, smiling at Clear with a sly grin. He couldn’t see Alpha 2, but from the soft noises he heard and the peculiar tenor in Master’s voice, he knew he was on his knees in front of Master.

“We were getting worried about you,” Alpha 1 said silkily. “Master thought we’d have to come after you again.”

He tried to apologize.

“I’m sorry, Mast-“

Toue held up a hand to silence him.

“What matters,” he said, without turning to look at him, “is that you’re here now. Now come over here and we can discuss your punishment.”

For a few moments the only sounds were the quiet grunts and sucking noises from the couch.

“I don’t want to.” Clear murmured, small and trembling.

“You don’t know what you want,” Toue replied briskly. “Now come here, or I’ll have Alpha 1 bring you.”

Clear, feeling sick to him stomach, stepped out of his bed and made his way over to the couch just in time to hear Master groan and see Alpha 2 come up, licking white from his lips. Clear envied them. They seemed so indifferent to it. But then again, that was why Master let them do something so simple. They knew their place, and acted as the objects they were. He, on the other hand, still hadn’t learned.

“Come, then. Let’s begin your lessons. Maybe this time they’ll get through your head.”

 

He cried, later, after he was allowed to go to bed. He held the jellyfish plushie close to his chest, curling around it, and wept into it until his systems let him fall asleep.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next chapter is also pretty angst-heavy. We time skip to post-album release, and Mizuki finds himself also acting as the manager for Clear and the Alphas, despite that not being a part of his job description. Clear is being bullied by his brothers (again), and also seems to be avoiding Mizuki- a difficult thing to do when you share a tour bus.


	6. Interlude

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Time skip to post-album release. Mizuki is acting as manager for Clear and the Alphas. Clear seems to be avoiding Mizuki, and a certain meme makes his debut in the popstar AU.

Mizuki checked his watch impatiently. _Late again_.

It’d been a little over four months since the self-titled debut album by Clear and the Alphas had been released, and three since they’d started doing live performances, but Clear was almost always late for rehearsal. He knew Toue had him running a lot of publicity circuits and socializing with “important” people in the idol world, but he had no clue why he ever scheduled meetings right before practice. Or what he did during those meetings.

Actually, now that he thought about it, Mizuki realized he didn’t really know much about what Clear did off stage anymore. Before “Blue Ocean Sounds” hit the Top 40 in Japan, the two of them would hang out together at the Aquarium, and sometimes the two of them would kiss a bit after practice. But now he hardly saw him. Sometimes he’d flip on TV and see Clear in an interview on the entertainment channel, or read about the group becoming spokes members for new Coil upgrades and cosmetics, but what they did beyond that was a mystery to him.

Mizuki glanced at the Alphas, who were off to the side, talking. He sighed. Might as well get started, then.

“Hey, you two. Take your places for the third number. We’re gonna practice your harmonies.”

One of the Alphas rolled their eyes.

“Why do we even need to practice, anyway?”

“Because that’s the sort of attitude that leads to making mistakes, that’s why. And whichever on of you is on the left keeps falling a bit flat in the second chorus. Now get in place.”

The two of them grumbled a bit, but took their places on the left and right of the practice room, and after he synced up the audio track to the room’s speakers, they began their routine immediately. Mizuki hated to admit it, but even with their incredible attitude problem, the Alphas knew how to consistently deliver. Maybe, in a different group, they’d actually get the attention they deserved. But they were just so damn _unlikable_ , and made no effort to appear otherwise, so they weren’t the headliners.

                The studio door clicked open, and Mizuki turned to see Clear, in a tank top and yoga pants, desperately trying to slip in unnoticed. Mizuki forced a thin smile.

“Nice of you to show up.”

Clear winced, taking off his sunglasses with a sheepish grin and a wave.

“Sorry, Mizuki. We got a little lost on our way back from the hotel.”

It was only then Mizuki noticed the person with him, tailing after Clear. He looked foreign, with dirty looking blonde hair, piercings all over his face, green eyes, and weirdly short eyebrows.

And he was holding Clear’s hand.

_What the fuck._

Mizuki felt his face twitch slightly, but he forced a polite smile all the same.

“Clear, you know you’re not allowed to bring fans back here during practice.”

The robot’s pink eyes widened, and he shook his head.

“Oh no, Mizuki, he’s not just a fan. Master gave me permission to bring him back here to observe us.” Clear, nudging the young man forward a bit, said something to him in a foreign language before turning to Mizuki.

“Mizuki, this is Noiz. He’s a musician who’s really popular in Germany right now, and he was thinking about doing a few collaborative tracks with us. He’s never been in Japan before, so I’ve been showing him around the island a bit.”

Mizuki forced another smile, and extended his hand in greeting.

“It’s nice to meet you.” He lied.

Noiz glanced down at his outstretched hand, looked back up at Mizuki’s face, and glanced away, playing with one of his lip piercings absentmindedly. He instead turned to Clear, and gestured over at the Alphas, who’d stopped practice to eavesdrop, and asked something in German. Clear replied in turn, nodding enthusiastically.

Mizuki tried not to let his irritation show. _That’s okay_ , he reassured himself _, maybe he doesn’t speak Japanese_. He nodded to himself. _Yeah, that was really sort of presumptuous of me to assume he’s fluent. After all, he hasn’t said a word in anything but German, so…_

“So are you three all made with the same specifications and everything?” he heard him ask the Alphas as he ran a thumb against Alpha 1’s cheek and studied his eyes. “Even the same skin polymers and nerve sensitivity?”

_Well, goes that excuse._

Alpha 1 nodded. “Pretty much, yeah, but Clear’s a huge pissbaby when it comes to being handled by people. But I’m sure you figured _that_ out pretty quickly.” Clear blushed scarlet.

“Quit saying stuff like that!”

Alpha 2 shrugged.

“I mean, it’s true.”

“I hate to interrupt,” Mizuki cut in, “But we’re already really behind right now, so it’s probably best if we actually start practice.” He motioned to a chair in the corner of the room with his thumb. “You can sit over there.” The two of them made eye contact for an intense second before Noiz grinned.

“No problem.” The blonde pulled the headliner in close and gave Clear a long, wet kiss on the mouth, the kind with a lot of tongue. Clear pulled away a bit, gave Mizuki an embarrassed sidelong glance, and muttered something in German, blushing. Noiz just winked. Mizuki’s patience ended.

“Oh my _god,_ you’re just going across the room _,_ you aren’t sending him off to war _._ Take a seat, Philipp Tanzer _.”_

Noiz smirked, and held his hands up as if to say ‘Whoa man, take it easy’ and complied with Mizuki’s directions, but not before giving Clear a stealthy squeeze on his butt as he walked away. Mizuki scowled. _God, allosexual people are weird._ He sighed.

“Okay, so Clear, we were going over the third number on the set list because someone keeps falling a bit flat during the harmony there. Let’s start from the top, then.” Clear nodded, all business, and Mizuki restarted the audio track. When they got to the verse in question, Noiz interrupted.

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure you’re trying to get the one on the left to sing too high.”

Mizuki could practically feel the vein pulsing in his temple, but he forced a polite smile.

                “No, that’s perfectly within Alpha 1’s range, he’s just falling a bit flat every time.”

Alpha 1 looked annoyed, but stayed silent. Noiz shook his head.

                “See, your problem is that you keep forgetting that all of them were programmed with the same vocal range, but you’re writing for three completely different voice types. He probably just got a little out of tune because his parts usually just involve his lower register.”

Mizuki studied Noiz as he walked over to Alpha 1, offered a wire, and pulled up his Coil interface. He was about an inch shorter than him, but he looked like he’d have no hesitation in picking a fight if Mizuki told him to fuck off and leave the studio. Once plugged into Alpha’s neck, he appeared to have somehow gotten around the security protocol and messed around with a couple of things in his settings.

“There. Try now.” He walked back to his chair and sat down.

It was fixed.

 

In his hotel room, the German and the robot laid entangled in bed, basking in the afterglow of sex. Noiz ran his fingers through Clear’s tousled hair, tracing his fingers around the nape of his neck where, if one looked closely enough, you could see the access port to open him up. Clear seemed to be lost in thought.

Noiz nibbled at Clear’s ear, and he squeaked in surprise. Noiz grinned.

“Got you.”

A smile flickered across the robot’s face for a moment, but then quickly disappeared as he slipped back into his thoughts.

“Noiz?”

“Yeah?”

“Have you ever cared a lot about someone you’re not supposed to?”

Noiz chuckled.

“Yeah, you could say that. Why?”

“Does it ever stop hurting?”

 

He stopped and rested his cheek on Clear’s back and sighed. That was a loaded question. But he didn’t want to lie to him, either. So he told the truth.

“No, it doesn’t.”

“What can I do, then?”

“Well,” he sighed, “There’s two options. The first is to ignore the consequences, and to try and be with them for as long as you can before it falls apart.”

Clear turned over to face him, pressing his warm body closer to Noiz’s, his leg brushing briefly against the piercings he had down below.

“What’s the second option?”

Noiz cupped Clear’s face in his hands, brushing his thumb across the moles on his cheek.

“You can try to forget them.”

Clear’s brow furrowed.

“How?”

“Maybe I can help.”

Noiz kissed him deeply, and Clear rolled onto his back, pulling Noiz on top of him and back into the throes of passion.

It wouldn’t change anything, but at least for now, they could distract themselves from the truth.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Who is Noiz in love with? Will he ever actually collaborate with Clear's group? These are questions that will never be answered or directly addressed, but almost certainly implied by other works in the series. Sorry! :P In the next chapter, the Alphas figure out Clear's incredibly obvious crush on Mizuki and respond like brothers naturally would: by tormenting him about it and being huge dicks. Meanwhile, Mizuki finds himself playing host to Koujaku, and has to come to terms with having genuine feelings for a robot.


	7. Etude, part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mizuki finds himself playing host to Koujaku, and has to come to terms with having genuine feelings for a robot, and right before he tells him, Clear messes things up by getting too physical. Clear’s brothers tease him about having a crush on a human, and tell him he’ll never feel the same way. Angst all around.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: REALLY REALLY potentially triggering material for people who've had anyone make moves on them they weren't really on board with.

For the first night in a while, Clear was sleeping in his own cot in the Oval Tower. Tonight was the first night he didn’t have any ‘dates’ since their album reached the top 40. They started out as simple meetings with other idols, but after someone expressed interest, Master found it to be another business opportunity. Clear was a popular personality, as it turned out, and important people paid nicely for a “Platinum VIP experience” with him. Nothing was _promised,_ of course, but Master made it apparent that he’d be disciplined if any attempt was made to deny a customer what they wanted from the experience. Sometimes the dates weren’t even set up by the clients, but rather used as a persuasion tactic on Toue’s part to get them to agree to certain deals. He even had a pelvic mod built so Clear could better serve clients who preferred a more _conventional_ point of entry. So for the past few weeks, Clear’s days and nights were consumed by dinner dates and hotel rooms.

Noiz wasn’t the first, but he was the first to actually treat him with compassion, and given his reluctance to leave, Clear was pretty sure he got the idea of what was really going on. Or maybe he was just another possessive fan who wanted to stay with him another night. There was no way to know for sure, but Clear chose to believe the former. Noiz, as unusual as he was, didn’t seem like the type of person to take advantage of someone else. Luckily, despite Mizuki’s shortness, the two of them agreed to cross-feature tracks on their upcoming albums.

Clear sighed, thinking about the redhead and how upset he’d been the other day. It’s true that he’d been late a lot, and that he’d been slacking off during practice, but he hoped Mizuki wasn’t too mad at him. Especially since the two of them would be working on writing the group’s second album together. He looked at the jellyfish plushie that they’d picked out at the aquarium and squeezed it close to his chest. God, he hoped he didn’t hate him now.

“What’s that?”

A snarky voice from the other side of the room practically made Clear jump out of his skin. It was one of his brothers, propped up on his own bed. Clear held the plushie tighter to his chest warily.

                “It’s from Mizuki.”

Alpha 2 snorted.

                “Why are you so obsessed with him, anyway? It’s super gross.”

“I’m _not_ obsessed with him! I just like him, okay?”

“Whatever. It’s still gross.”

Both of them were silent for a few moments.

“Do… do you think he likes me, too?” Clear asked, hesitantly.

“You wanna know what I think?” Alpha 1 piped up from his cot, “I think the two of you should go the fuck to sleep. I’m still sore from taking it up the ass earlier.”

Alpha 2 groaned and rolled his eyes.

“Ugh, tell me about it. I feel like Master’s totally gotten rougher with us now that you’re doing this whole ‘date’ thing. You’re so lucky you just have to watch now.”

Clear shook his head.

“No I’m not. I’m not lucky at all. When it’s me, I can pretend I’m not there. But having to watch is almost worse. It’s seeing and hearing yourself being violated over and over, and not being allowed to look away because you don’t want to make him mad.” He buried his face in the jellyfish plush. “It’s like hell.”

“God, you’re such a drama queen,” Alpha 1 sighed. “It’s the same way for us. We just know there’s no use crying about it.”

Alpha 2 nodded sagely, and Clear got a sob caught in his throat.

“He can’t just _use_ us this way! We can’t just let him treat us like this!”

“As opposed to what?” Alpha 1 snapped. “Would you rather he lied about it, tell some flimsy lie about us having our own choices and free will? Pretend to _care about us_ like your _precious_ Mizuki does so he can get in your pants? Grow the fuck up.”

“Mizuki’s not-“

Alpha turned to the wall angrily.

“Just shut up, okay? You don’t understand anything! We aren’t important to anyone, _brother._ We’re just toys for them, and when they get bored of us, they’ll throw us away. You should just accept that.”

“I bet that’s why Mizuki’s been mad at you.” Alpha 2 cooed. “He’s frustrated because you won’t give him what he wants.”

“Or, more importantly, because you gave it to someone else~”

Clear was silent for a few moments. Maybe they were right. Maybe Mizuki was mad because he’d seen him with other people in the papers and after practice, and he thought he stopped caring about him.

Mizuki said to him once that what drew him to the robot at the conference was his innocence; what would he say if he learned what he _really_ was? What if…what if Mizuki knew about the others? What if he knew about the things he did with them? Would he be disgusted by him now? Clear’s grip on the plushie tensed again as a creeping sense of dread worked its way to his core.

“Do you guys think it’s too late?” he whispered.

He couldn’t see it, but he heard his brothers shrug.

“Who knows. No one really wants used goods, but I guess it’s worth a shot. Just make him an offer, you know? If he totally kicks your ass to the curb afterwards you’ll know for sure.”

Clear twisted the blankets nervously.

“Won’t I get in trouble?”

“You just said you wanted us to stop taking shit from Master, right? Lead by example. Then maybe we’ll consider it. Now go to sleep. _Some of us_ have practice tomorrow.”

 

 

Mizuki got the call early that morning. He flipped open his Coil and groggily uttered a ‘hello’ into the receiver. A familiar voice answered.

“What’s a guy gotta do to get a phone call from an old friend?” It was Koujaku. Mizuki sat up in bed and stretched, grinning.

“Call at a decent hour, maybe?””

“Ah, shit, did I wake you? Sorry man, I totally forgot about the time difference.”

“Where are you right now?”

“Just finished a show in Sydney.”

Mizuki whistled.

“Damn. I didn’t realize you were that popular outside the mainland.”

“You and me both. I thought our Japanese fans were nuts, but, man…” He could almost hear the grin on Koujaku’s face. “Man, do I have some stories to tell you when I visit home.”

“You’re coming back to Midorijima?”

“Yeah, just for a few days, and then there’s another leg of the tour on the mainland.”

Suddenly, Mizuki was hit by a wave of inspiration. That was it! That was exactly how he’d get over this weirdness.

“You should stay at my place, hang out a bit.”

“Nah, man, I couldn’t intrude like that. Besides, isn’t your place a bit small for two?”

“No, no, I insist. Besides, I’m in a different apartment now, anyway. It’s practically a house. I’ve got two guest rooms I’ve never even been in.”

“Well…”

“Come on,” Mizuki said pleadingly. “Do it as a favor for me.”

“All right, fine. My flight gets in pretty late tonight, though, so I probably won’t be up to doing anything too crazy, all right?”

Mizuki grinned.

“Awesome. I’ll see you later.”

“Later. Have fun at work.”

 

“Uggggggghhh…” Mizuki flopped back down on his bed. “I really don’t want to go today.”

“Aww, what’s the matter, babe, trouble in paradise? I thought the whole point you got into music was so you didn’t end up working in a job you hate?”

Mizuki laughed.

“Yeah, that was the plan. Things have just been weird lately.”

“Weird how?”

“Mmmmmh, I’m not sure if I’m allowed to say…” Mizuki shifted onto his side uncomfortably. “Well...without getting too specific, let’s just say someone brought a really annoying guy to practice the other day without telling me about it first.”

“Oh, _really_? What, did the singer get a new boyfriend or something? You gotta watch out for that, man, he might not like it that you’re spending so much time with his girl, try to start a fight with you.”

Mizuki’ brow scrunched in annoyance.

“No, he’s most certainly _not_ their boyfriend. Well, he better not be.” He explained to Koujaku in great detail the disgusting amount of PDA the two of them had been sharing before practice. “So yeah, he pissed me off, but they’re _not_ dating. And anyway, Clear’s not a girl.”

“Eh? They aren’t? You sure?”

The image of the bulge in Clear’s panties came unbidden to his mind, and he covered his blushing face.

“Yeah, I’m sure. I mean, he’s a robot, but his, uh… _output_ is definitely male.”

“Really? That’s weird. What’s with all the floaty dresses and pictures of them in sexy outfits in men’s magazines for, then? Is it like a fetish thing?”

The line of irritation in Mizuki’s forehead deepened.

“I…don’t think so? I don’t even think an AI even have a fetish.”

“Hey, you’d know better than me, man.”

Mizuki frowned.

“What’s with that tone?”

“I’m not trying to step on your toes or anything, but it seems like you’re really jealous of this German kid.”

“I’m _not_ jealous _._ ”

“Hey, take it easy, Mizuki. I’ve been around the world, and I may not speak the language, but that booty-grabbing jealousy don’t need explainin’. I mean, I more of a boob man myself, but I guess that’s not really an option in this sort of situation, huh?”

Mizuki sighed, exasperated.

“I am not jealous, okay? I just don’t think he should be hanging out with guys like that. He just looks super suspicious with all of those piercings.”

“Says the guy with a pierced ear, two full sleeves, a face and a neck tattoo, and wears enough leather to be mistaken for a BDSM maniac.”

“That’s completely different!” Mizuki said hotly.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever.” He could tell Koujaku was rolling his eyes on the other end. “So, Mizuki-as your friend, I need to know- have you already put your flashdrive in that USB port?”

“What?”

“I’m asking if you’ve uh, checked out the IdolMate’s hard drive. Tested the RAM.”

Mizuki made a confused noise similar to that of a blue whale.

“Unzipped any files. Played with their joystick. Backed it up. Tunneled their ports.”

“What _the_ _fuck_ are you talking about?”

“Dude, I’m talking about you banging the robot.”

“ _I am not banging the robot!”_

“Well that answers _that_ question. Do you plan to?”

“ _Oh my god.”_

“Are you banging _right now_?”

Mizuki felt his face turning a deep red, and he buried his face into his pillow.

“Stop iiiiiiit.”

Koujaku laughed on the other end of the line.

“Sorry, man, I was just being an asshole. I know you’re not really into much of that. Anyway, I’ll see you tonight. Later.”

“Yeah, later.”

He ended the call, sighed, and stared at the ceiling for a few moments, lost in thought. What the fuck. _What the fuck._ There was just _no way_ he was jealous of that smug little asshole. He just didn’t like that he got so handsy with Clear, that’s all. Not because he wanted to touch him. It wasn’t like he was wondering if Clear was soft in other places, or imagining him making such a cute embarrassed face because of something _he_ said. No. There was no way.

Mizuki’s fingers brushed across his lips, remembering the last time Clear kissed him.

 

It was after piano lessons, he remembered, and Clear had finally gotten the hang of beam notes, which meant now he would be pretty much set to play most pop songs if he cared to. They’d just finished a teacher-student duet of Tchaikovsky’s Morning Prayer when he noticed Clear’s forlorn face.

“What’s the matter?”

“Well…” Clear began, but shook his head. “No, it’s nothing.”

Mizuki would’ve liked to say he’d then looked down on him fondly, but since they were the same height, it was more like he tilted his head a bit and smiled.

“Nah, keep going. You can tell me anything.”

He felt Clear tense slightly. Well, that was the opposite of what he wanted to happen. Tension or distrust didn’t make for a good learning environment. He put his hand on Clear’s shoulder, the soft fabric of his blue cardigan rustling under Mizuki’s fingerless glove. He squeezed him gently, hoping to get the usually-cheery robot to relax. He flinched, and looked at his instructor, startled.

“Clear, what’s wrong?”

The robot cast his gaze downward again, looking at his own gloved hands.

“It’s just that…I’ll never be as good at music as you are, Mizuki.”

Mizuki gaped at him. Was he serious?

“Clear, what are you even talking about? You’ve made incredible progress in such a short span of time! Most people would take months to learn all of this, but you’ve gotten this far in a little over one. You’ve got great potential.”

“But you’re the one writing all of the songs. I’m just taking all the credit.” Clear sighed. “You should be the one people want to talk to, not me.”

Mizuki frowned, and he gently tilted Clear’s chin so he could look into his eyes. They were full of sorrow and regret.

“Clear…?”

The robot’s eyes watered a bit, and his lip trembled slightly.

“I-I thought I wanted this…” he began, “But I didn’t really get what all of _this_ was, really. And now… what if I don’t?” Mizuki leaned in, placing his other hand on Clear’s face, hoping to steady him.

“It’s okay to feel that way.” He smiled in a way he hoped seemed reassuring. “I felt like that too when I first got my break. It’s overwhelming, isn’t it?”

Clear was shaking now. Mizuki pulled him into an embrace, rubbing his back slowly.

“Hey. Hey, it’s all right. I promise you it’s gonna get easier, okay? And in the meantime…” He pulled back to look him in the eyes. “I’ll be here to help you out, okay?” He gave him a soft kiss on the cheek, still framing Clear’s face in his hands.

A few tears managed to escape from Clear’s face, but he smiled all the same, the moles by his mouth reluctantly following along. He clasped Mizuki’s left hand in both of his and patted it gently. Then he moved closer to his teacher, his gray jeans and teeshirt brushing up against Mizuki’s leather as he kissed him and wrapped him in an embrace of his own. Smiling coyly, Clear swung one of his legs to the outside of the piano bench, effectively trapping him between his legs. He kissed Mizuki again, harder his time, resting his forehead on Mizuki’s shoulder after he pulled back for air.

Every alarm in Mizuki’s brain was going off at once. This was bad. This was so bad. Clear was _touching_ him- not like before, with just his hands, but with everything, pressing _everything_ against him. He felt uncomfortable, but he was absolutely trapped between the piano in front of him and the robot’s leg behind him. He could probably pull away, but giving the timing, that probably wasn’t the best option. So he sat there, frozen in panic as Clear started kissing his neck, his gloved hand slipping up underneath Mizuki’s shirt.

The door opened, and one of the Alphas walked in, holding a jellyfish print totebag in one hand.

“Hey, moron, you left your stuff back at the-“

In the span of less than a second, several things happened: First, Alpha’s eyes widened in surprise as he processed what was going on, his eyes meeting Mizuki’s panicked gaze. With a squeak, Clear jumped back from Mizuki as if he was electrocuted, sliding all the way to the other end of the bench, twiddling his thumbs like he hadn’t just put them up Mizuki’s shirt a few seconds ago. And Mizuki, freed from Clear’s grasp, leapt to his feet and stood stiffly to the other side of the piano.

No one spoke for several seconds. They all just stared at each other, or in Clear’s case, avoided any eye contact in silence. Alpha just grimaced, shot his brother a disapproving look, and shook his head before he exited the way he came. Mizuki cleared his throat nervously.

“I, uh, I think that’s good for today, then. I’ll see you next week.”

Mizuki practically made a dash for the door, but Clear didn’t move or say anything, and he managed to vacate the room as quickly as he could. As he passed Alpha in the hallway he could feel his reproachful eyes burning into his back.

That was a little more than a month ago, but it still bothered him. He shook his head as if to clear away the memory. He didn’t have time to think about shit like this. He had to get ready for work. Mizuki swung his legs off the side of his bed, and changed into his usual outfit: black tee-shirt, leather jacket, leather pants, and fingerless gloves. (Okay, maybe Koujaku had a point about all the leather, he reflected silently. But it still looked cool.)

 

Clear didn’t show up for work again that day. He asked the Alphas where he was and they shrugged indifferently. After over an hour without him showing up, he told them to take the rest of the day off. He spent the rest of the day in his office trying to write something for the next album. The cuter, more ballet-like “Blue Ocean Sounds”- the song he wanted to write about jellyfish- had done the best out of all of the songs on the album, so he was trying to spin more of the songs in that direction. It was getting dark outside when there was a knock at the door.

“Come in.” he replied without looking up.

The door clicked open, and a figure timidly walked in, hovering by the entrance. He glanced up. It was Clear, dressed in a hoodie and shorts. He shuffled his feet awkwardly, and smiled at Mizuki sheepishly.

“I’m sorry I didn’t come to practice today.”

Mizuki continued to mess with the papers on his desk as an excuse to avoid eye contact.

                “It’s no big deal,” he lied. “Just do whatever you want.”

Clear leaned against the door frame, a wistful look on his face.

“…Can we talk somewhere else?”

Mizuki actually looked at him now. He seemed uncomfortable, like he had something weighing on him. Mizuki sighed and decided to humor him.

“Yeah, okay. Where do you want to go?”

Clear lead him back down the familiar pathways of the company facilities and into the tunnel that lead to Oval Tower, saying nothing the whole way. Mizuki tried to get him to explain a bit, but he just shook his head and said, “Not here.” It wasn’t until they were in the elevator and Clear scanned the serial number on his wrist to get access to the 19th floor did he realize they were headed to Clear’s quarters. Mizuki raised an eyebrow quizzically, but Clear refused to address it.

 

The all-white apartment was eerily empty when they entered. Clear hopped onto the couch, pulling his legs up underneath him, and motioned for him to take a seat next to him.

Something was very, very wrong.

But he sat down anyway.

“Mizuki…” he began, “I… I wanted to say I’m sorry for the other day. I was really inconsiderate about bringing Noiz here without saying anything to you. I wasn’t sure what he was going to do on his own, so I brought him here, but I didn’t really take into account how you’d feel about it. And for that… I’m sorry.”

"Clear, I've been meaning to tell you something too...."

The robot closed the gap between them, moving in to kiss him on the lips. Then he kissed his face, his neck, his forehead. Mizuki pulled back, stammering a weak protest. Clear went back in, slipping his tongue into his mouth, biting on his lip. The movements were desperate, pleading, passionate. He buried his face in Mizuki’s neck again, pressing his whole body up against him. Clear reached down to Mizuki’s crotch, rubbing against it aggressively through his tight pants.

Mizuki finally came out of his state of shock, shoved Clear off of him and rolled off the couch, his heart hammering in his ears. The two of them just stared at each other for a tense moment, panting.

“What- what the fuck? _What the fuck are you doing?_ ”

Clear stared at him blankly, his eyes misty.

“I- thought that was what you wanted.”

Mizuki could feel himself shaking, partially from anger, partially from something else. He rose from the floor angrily, trying to control the waver in his voice.

“No- No, no, _no!_ I don’t want this, okay? You can’t just decide for me what I want, okay? You, of all people, should understand that!” He felt tears pricking in the corners of his eyes, but he just gritted his teeth and blinked them away angrily.

“But-“

“No! I’m done, okay? I’m leaving.”

With that, he turned and ran out. A lump formed in his throat, and felt himself choking back a sob.

 

That left Clear stunned on the couch, lip trembling, shoulders shaking.

His brothers were right. He hated him. He really hated him.

How did this go wrong? _How did it go so wrong?_


End file.
